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Jet2 flies Briton to wrong country

It was only three hours into the flight, when the pilot announced that the plane was an hour away from touching down in England, that Stacey McGuinness realised she was on the wrong plane, heading to the wrong country.

The 27-year-old eventually had to be driven the 300 miles back to Scotland in a taxi.

Surprisingly, Ms McGuinness, from Dundee, had managed to pass through all the normal check-in and security procedures for her flight with Jet2, from Dalaman, Turkey, on Friday night, without anyone noticing that she was boarding the wrong plane.

Despite being initially confused by instructions on departure screens at Dalaman, she says she was assured by the airline’s staff that she was at the correct boarding gate for her 11.05pm flight.

“The screen said to go to gate 33 for the flight to Glasgow,” the 27-year-old told the Daily Mail. “But when I went to the desk it said Leeds-Bradford.

“When I asked at the desk, they said ‘this is the right one’. I asked them to check again just before we boarded, but they still said I was in the right place.

“I got to my seat fine. The plane was quite empty anyway.”

It was only when the pilot announced that the plane was an hour away from touching down in England that Ms McGuinness realised the error.

She met a Jet2 manager after landing but her luggage had not arrived and four days later, it had still not been returned.

To make up for the inconvenience of being so far from home, Jet2 paid for the five-hour taxi journey to get her back.

"The manager said it shouldn't have happened, and that I could have been a terrorist or anything," she said. "The taxi driver did not want the journey at all,” she said.

“I got back in the end, but all my clothes and valuables are in my suitcase that I still haven't got back, and the customer services are telling me nothing.”

A Jet2 spokesperson said: “We are aware of Ms McGuinness’s experience and have offered our apologies for any inconvenience caused. A full investigation is underway; however security was never compromised as she was a ticketed passenger and both she and her luggage had completed all security checks.”

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